@Tim DiMario- thanks and welcome ...I would recommend getting formally pre approved for a hypotehtical scenario with a lender ...This process will help get you organized / prepared and its free ...you will also learn a lot ....if you never  buy anything or dont buy anything for soem time - its  OK ...good luck

Yeah - this hits on most of the strategies that are still making the numbers work in this market = multi-unit, secondary markets and creating value through BRRRR (buying/renovating -->stabilize instead of turnkey rental purchases)

Plenty of people use the VA loan to buy and rent out when they are stationed somewhere else.

I am in the process of buying a venue with 15 cabins and was wondering if I decided to live there.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator you can use to analyze deals and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

Also, do you even want to buy the rate down on a loan right now.

> Military husband/wife buy new home, divorce, stop paying note and hoa> Husband is erroneously removed from title by tax appraiser, HOA forecloses on wife, I buy home at auction> Now I am on title, wife and husband on note, bank cannot foreclose because husband is protected by SCRA > (more on this in the above post, but husband does not want the house back)A while after moving in I discovered water damage inside a wall where rain has been getting in due to needing a new roof. 

For example, you can buy a $50,000 house that will rent for $1,000 a month, but it will also experience significant tenant problems, expensive turnovers, long vacancies, and other costly problems.

They got into the business to buy homes for themselves.

For real estate investors--fortunes are made by buying the major housing dips.